Mark Halperin of Time and ABC — yes, the same Mark Halperin who basically said, in 2004, that the media should fact-check Republicans more aggressively than Democrats because Republicans lie more and everybody knows it — just drooled on CNN over the Obama-mercial. “Effing brilliant,” he said, stunned by the fact that the thing merged live footage with taped footage, which every newscast does every minute of every day. Talk about grading on a curve! And Halperin said it was leagues beyond the Perot half-hours in 1992, which is a bizarre opinion. Those Perot speeches, which I didn’t like or admire, were, as a matter of practical politics, among the most effective uses of television in politics in modern history.